Double Bass Pedals

Jaco91222

I'm planning to buy a Gibraltar 9611 Direct Drive.

Question is, what is preferred? Chain Drive, Belt Drive or Direct Drive???

Reviews on YouTube state that the direct drive is solid and fluid, others say again chain drive is better. I guess it depends on personal taste, but any opinion of experience will help a lot.

Thanks. ?

AlanRatcliffe

It is a personal thing. I prefer chain myself. Direct drive is a bit too unforgiving and belts are a bit too floppy for me.

With a double pedal I think the important thing is the linkage from the slave to the master - that affects the feel of the left pedal a lot more than the drive system. Any play or wear and the left pedal gets less responsive. Watch out for pedals with cast parts in the linkages as while they may feel good at first they wear relatively quickly.

Jaco91222

What do you mean with ''unforgiving'' ??

AlanRatcliffe

Jaco91222 wrote: What do you mean with ''unforgiving'' ??

With direct drive, the beater stops precisely when your foot does, which makes techniques like feathering much more difficult for me, where I'll stop with the beater just short of the head and let momentum do the rest. Probably wouldn't be an issue if I was a better player. ?

Jaco91222

So techniques like 'heel toe'' will not work?

AlanRatcliffe

No that'll still work. Maybe even be a little easier.

Jaco91222

So then I think maybe its a good option for me. Some pedal like Tama's Iron Cobra is too ''smooth'' sometimes it feels like its running by itself. Which is good, but I do not prefer it.